Activision Casts Doubt on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Sequel

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare may be the most futuristic vision of franchise we ever see with no sequel on the horizon, according to recent comments from Activision president Rob Kostich. Instead, the shooter franchise is likely to remain in modern and near-future settings, as they provide the best balance of realism and flexibility.

Kostich made the comments as part of a far-reaching interview with GamesBeat, which celebrated Call of Duty’s 20-year history. “I think we’ve done a lot of games in the future. We probably went as far there as we possibly could,” he said. That is a reference to 2016’s Infinite Warfare, which is set in 2187 and introduced mechanics like zero-gravity combat and energy-based weapons. However, it was not embraced by fans as readily as other titles.

Kostich continued, “We made some of the games in the past. You start to see the sweet spot over time and what really resonates with the community. You see things like the Modern Warfare and Black Ops franchises are really popular.” While Modern Warfare has been contemporaneous in both its 2007-2011 and 2019-present runs, Black Ops has been more varied, spanning a century between the 1960s and the 2060s across its four entries. And Black Ops has provided more freedom in what can be included: “Black Ops is all about secret stuff no one knows about. There’s a lot of applied creativity built into Black Ops, which is always really fun for developers to get after as well.”

Kostich also highlighted the sales of 2017’s Call of Duty: World War II but mentioned that the setting was a little creatively limiting: “The challenge is when you go into World War II or even earlier, there’s less flexibility when you’re trying to maintain a somewhat realistic tone, which is important to Call of Duty. By the way, our fans very strongly define what Call of Duty is and isn’t. Once you get into the modern era, you have a lot more flexibility. You get in the future a little bit, there’s even more flexibility with what you can do with weapons.”

He also mentioned that the future of Call of Duty is already planned through to 2027, with 3,000 people contributing work to the franchise across Activision’s entire slate of studios. Those plans no doubt include future updates to Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile, as well as this year’s mainline entry, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and whatever will follow it. Unfortunately, Kostich’s comments make it seem as if Infinite Warfare fans won’t be getting a sequel, but there’s still plenty to look forward to.